Interrogation
by daswortowo
Summary: Percy never wanted to join a gang, he never wanted to do anything illegal, he never wanted to kill someone... He never wanted to end up in jail. Camp Half-Blood Forum Best Kept Secret Contest Submission.


Chiron looked through the window with a frown when he heard the boy quietly sob to himself.

Usually, he wouldn't pity someone he's interrogating, but this boy seemed different from his friends Chiron had talked to earlier.

Chiron let out a deep breath. He grabbed his clipboard and entered the grey gloomy room, making sure to lock the door on his way inside.

Startled by the noise, the boy looked up to see Chiron sit down on the opposite end of the table.

"Let's start off with the easier questions, what's your name?"

"Percy… Percy Jackson." He hesitated as he wiped his tears off with his sleeve as best he could with handcuffs.

"Well, Percy, my name is Chiron." Chiron introduced himself as well. "How old are you?"

"16." Chiron was surprised when he had answered, he was by far the youngest out of his friends. He wrote down a few stuff on his clipboard before moving onto the next question.

"Do you know why you are here today?"

Percy slowly nodded as he bit the bottom of his lip.

"Let's make this easy, do you think you're a criminal," Chiron said.

"Y-yeah…"

"Can you tell me the story of how this all happened? Your friends refuse to talk, it'll be very helpful if you can talk honestly."

Percy could feel his heart beat faster, he couldn't go to prison, his mom would kill him! Especially since she doesn't know what he does for a living.

"Do I talk about the incident?"

"Let's start with how you joined this gang..." Chiron heard Percy nervously tap his fingers against the table before Percy started speaking.

"Well…" Percy gulped as he began to tell a tale that he had told no one before. "It all started three years ago, my family was really poor, my mom was juggling three jobs at once, and my step-dad was spending it all on cigarettes, beer and gambling it all." Percy could feel more tears threatening to fall as he relieved a distant memory. "I wanted to help out my mom so we can get out of that hell-hole, I had already tried almost every job in New York that could hire a twelve-year-old, but no matter how hard I world, I couldn't get more than a few dollars, so I started searching for a job that paid more…

* * *

 _I tiptoed out of my room with my skateboard and looked at the sleeping figure of Gabe snoring on the couch. He was surrounded by cigarette butts and broken beer glasses as usual, but I didn't know if it was just me, but he smelt worse than yesterday, and that was saying something._

 _I opened the door, taking one last glance at our apartment before running down the stairs. Once I had gotten outside my head immediately turned towards the nearest trashcan where there was always a few thrown away newspapers with a few job openings._

 _My eyes skilled through the list, not finding a single thing that would accept a 12-year-old right now. My lips started to frown as I put the paper back in the trash bin._

 _I put my skateboard on the sidewalk and began to skate away, maybe I'd find something soon._

 _I skated around and looked around the crowded streets of Manhatten. I had to dodge many people as they passed by me, some were rushing to get somewhere, others were taking their sweet time on their phone, or talking to a friend._

 _I had always adored the busy streets of Manhattan, I would always go out whenever I couldn't stand my silent apartment. I could just get lost in the sea of people and feel like I'm not out of place._

" _Hey watch it!" I heard a car honk at me, I immediately slipped out of my thoughts to realize that they had almost hit me._

" _Sorry!" I shuffled back onto the sidewalks a bit embarrassed._

 _I skated near the storefronts when I had heard someone._

" _Hey, kid! Over here!" A voice yelled out at me from a corner. Their voice was familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on who had called me._

" _Huh?" I hopped off my skateboard and picked it up. I held my skateboard to my side as I turned to my corner into a dark alleyway._

" _Luke?" A boy with cropped blonde hair and blue eyes who I had known so well before._

" _Percy my buddy! Long time no see!" Luke grinned. He was about 7 years older than me and used to live next door to me before he moved away with his mother three years ago. I never really thought I would see him again._

" _What are you doing back in New York?" I said with a large smile._

" _Oh you know, I moved back here a few months ago with a few friends." Luke stepped a bit out of the shade of the buildings, revealing more of his features. He looked at me up and down, "Woow, Percy you've grown since I last saw you."_

" _Yeah! Grown a whole 5 inches!" I said accomplished but my smile faded as I saw a scar from his eye down to his jaw. "What happened? Are you okay?"_

" _It's nothing!" Luke snapped, I stepped back a little startled. "Just got into a car accident, I'm fine."_

" _But anyways Percy, a little birdie told me you're looking for a job." His mouth suddenly turned upwards back into a smile._

 _I slowly nodded._

" _I need you to deliver this to someone, you just need to give this to an address, they'll give you money, and we'll meet back here. We can split the money. Deal?" Luke gave me a brown leather suitcase and a creepy smile._

 _I grabbed the handle of the suitcase. It wasn't that heavy but once Luke let go I immediately felt all of the weight. "What's in it?" I asked curiously._

" _Just something…" Right at that moment, I smelt something familiar._

" _Its drugs isn't it."_

" _What? Percy no… Yes, it is now here's the addre-."_

" _No, Luke I'm not doing anything illegal." I pushed the suitcase back at him._

 _His fist clenched together as he stared at me. "Percy, it's fine, we're not going to get caught. It's a lot of money, just this once."_

 _Back when we were younger, Luke had always wanted to be a policeman. And I looked up to him because of that._

 _What had happened to Luke?_

 _I could tell that he had changed so much these past years, just by this conversation alone._

" _No! You can do it!"_

" _Percy! If you do this, I promise I'll never bother you ever again! You need money and I am doing this for you! You...you should thank me!"_

 _I hesitated. I could really use the money. "...Fine… But just this once!" I snatched the suitcase back and the piece of paper with the address that Luke was holding._

* * *

 _I was always disgusted when Gabe's local drug dealer came around to gamble with him. But now… I was the holding a suitcase full of the exact thing that I was disgusted by. Police are probably going to find out! And I couldn't stand the look of disappointment and sadness on my mother's face if she finds out._

 _But, we needed the money. My mom won't have to work so hard now, we can finally get away from Gabe..._

 _I kept repeating that over and over inside my head, but all I could feel was guilt. I was about to do somethin- No, I_ _ **am**_ _doing something illegal._

 _What the Hades was I doing? Was the first thing that had come into my mind when I finally found the address in an old, beat up apartment building._

 _My hand was shaking as I knocked on the wooden door. I gulped, ready to give the suitcase, get the money and make a dash for it. I really didn't want to be here longer than I already had too._

 _I waited and waited, but no one answered the door. I was ready to give up and leave and never look back. I turned around to leave before I heard a bunch of locks unlocking and the old wooden door screeching against the concrete flooring._

" _What do you want, kid?" I heard a raspy, yet intimidating voice said._

 _I caught my breath as I slowly started to turn around._

* * *

"After that, Luke split the money as he promised and we went our separate ways… for a while…" Percy held his head in shame as he knew what he had to say next.

"I know I promised myself that I would never do anything illegal again… But my mom was just in a car crash and the medical bills were so expensive… That I…" Percy hesitated, "...Sought out Luke again…"

Percy could hear the sound of Chiron's pen writing against his paper, writing down everything. He knew he was going to jail, so why not just tell him everything, it's not like the others would find out.

"Go on…" Chiron motioned to continue his story.

"Luke showed me to his gang, and soon I became one of them… I told myself I would stay until I had paid our medical expenses and had enough money for my mother and me to get out of the city for her to land a stable higher pay job… But… They became my family…

* * *

 _Luke gestured at me to follow him out of his van. We reached an old warehouse that looked abandoned._

 _I followed him to the back of the warehouse where a door that was barely visible was located. Luke knocked a pattern on the door._

 _Knock-Knock... Knock-Knock-Knock… Knock-Knock..._

" _It's Luke."_

 _A bunch of locks unlocking were heard from the other side of the door. Luke looked at me and smile encouragingly as he saw I was tense. "Relax, they're really cool people, you're going to like them._

" _Luke! Where the Hades have you been!" A girl opened the door with black spikey short hair started to talk to Luke in a hushed tone, before realizing I was behind him._

" _Who's that?" She eyed me up and down carefully, before raising her eyebrow at Luke looking for an answer._

" _This is my friend Percy, the guy I've been talking to you about."_

" _Oh Hades, he's real?" She said in disbelief as I just stood there awkwardly._

 _Luke rolled his eyes at her, "Thalia this is Percy, Percy this is Thalia."_

 _I gave a small wave, "Hey."_

 _She just narrowed her eyes at me before letting us inside. We followed Thalia down a bland hallway filled with 4 metal doors. We reached the end of the hallway where she entered a passcode, unlocking a door. 1-9-9-3_

" _Luke… Can I speak to you in... private?" Thalia turned to Luke and spoke in a hushed tone looking at me in the corner of her right eye._

" _Yeah… Percy, you can go ahead, introduce yourself to the others." He gestured to the open door while he and Thalia went into another room for a private conversation._

 _I gulped, nervous about being left alone. What if they didn't like me? What if they didn't want a scrawny kid like me? Oh Hades, they could probably beat me to a pulp if I chose one wrong move._

 _My hand shakily opened the door wider just enough for me to slip in and close the metal door._

 _I shivered as I was met with immediate coldness. But not letting that stop me, I passed through another door, this time without a lock or something, and was a normal door._

 _On the other side of the door, I heard loud talking and inside there were a few couches, games and a mini bar, along with more doors and people around the room. I coughed a bit from the stench of alcohol and cigarettes in the room, which made all the heads turn at me, and the talking stopped._

 _As if on cue my palms started to sweat, "Uh… Hi?" I mentally face palmed myself._

" _You must be Percy!" A chocolate-skinned girl jumped up from the carpet on the floor and greeted me. She had curly brown hair and seemed to be around my height, she might even be a little taller._

 _She seemed surprised at my height and grinned. "Yes! I'm finally taller than someone!-But I'm Hazel!"_

 _I gave her a little smile as others started to walk towards me and introduce themselves._

" _Leo! And don't be intimidated by Frank over there, he's a teddy bear." A guy with brown curly hair who seemed way too hyper said and pointed to a big Asian dude talking to Hazel. Once he caught me and Leo staring, he just gave us a small friendly smile, which I returned._

" _Annabeth… Nice to finally meet you…" A blonde hair girl with stormy eyes-who seems to be calculating my every move. I flinched when she raised her hand, only to realize that she was only going to shake my hand._

" _I'm Piper, and that's Jason." A girl with choppy brown hair said with another boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, I eyed his scar on his lip wondering if he had gotten that from a car crash too like Luke. Piper leaned over and whispered giggling a bit, "He tried to eat a stapler when he was little."_

" _Piper! You don't need to tell everyone who we meet that!" Jason said with a red face. I tried my best not to laugh, but eventually, I had let out a few laughs._

" _And those two gloomy people over there are Reyna and Nico." Piper introduced a girl with brown hair and a boy with black hair on the couch smoking cigarettes._

 _Luke and Thalia entered the room at that very second. "Welcome," Thalia grumbled before joining Reyna and Nico on the couch. What was her problem?_

* * *

"I helped them with delivering drugs to certain people, and in return, I had a fair share of cash. I was let into their Gang and became good friends with all of them… They were like my family far away from home… I went to them whenever I was in trouble and my mother always just thought I was at a friends house…"

"So your mother doesn't know that you participate in illegal activities?"

Percy shook his head, "Are we done yet?" He said impatiently as he drummed his fingers on the table.

"Almost," Chiron took note of Percy's fingers and movement while he was talking, "Do you have ADHD?"

"Yeah, and dyslexia." Chiron nodded as he wrote a few more stuff.

"So you just dealt drugs? No taking drugs, no underage drinking or smoking?"

Percy hesitated, "I had a few drinks…But that's it!"

Chiron nodded again, "Can you tell me about the incident?"

"Well, there was another Gang- Kronos's Army, located near us and Luke went out alone one night… The next day his dead body showed up at the warehouse with everything trashed… We knew it was them because they had their symbol everywhere…" Percy took a deep breath, "So we needed our revenge, without Luke our violence got out of hand. We were at war with them… Kronos - the leader who killed Luke, and I were face to face…" Percy clenched his fist, "I just lost it, anger overcame me because he killed my childhood friend… I had a gun… And I- I

* * *

 _I stared at Kronos, the one who had killed Luke. He was on the ground, his eye was bruised and his nose busted from where I had punched him._

 _Around me were my friends, dealing with his cronies._

 _And In my shaking hand was a gun, that was pointed right at him._

" _You won't do it." Kronos laughed darkly at me. My hand tightened on the hilt of the gun. I wasn't afraid._

 _In the distance, I heard sirens and my friends yelling at me to get going._

 _My aim was shaky as I aimed for his head, ready to pull the trigger. He was smiling, taunting me to just shoot him._

 _I trembled, all I had to do was pull the trigger and he'll be dead. But I couldn't seem to find my strength to pull it. I was going to kill someone, end their life forever._

 _I wasn't ready to do that. When I was younger I would have never thought of killing someone, much less hurting someone. I tried to find that innocence, if there was any left, begging myself not to pull the trigger, it was someone's life on the line for Zeus's sakes! How would my mom think about her 16-year-old son, shooting someone in the head? How would my mother feel that her only son, is a murderer?_

 _But I was killing a murderer wasn't I? He had killed Luke. Suddenly all of my anger built up again and I pulled on the trigger._

 _I caught my breath as a bullet headed towards him, it was like it was in slow motion. I could hear my heart beat as it came closer to Kronos._

 _ **BANG**_

* * *

I shot him. I killed him..." Percy was full on sobbing as he finished his story. "Just take me to prison already! I killed someone! I sold drugs! I'm in a gang!" Percy's voice cracked, "that's all the proof you need!" He didn't know what he was saying, he didn't want to go to prison, but his voice was betraying him.

Chiron sighed, by the tone of Percy's voice, Chiron had already known that he didn't want to go to prison like most people. "You seem like a good kid, and all of those crimes could give you a long sentence in prison. You understand that?"

Percy froze, he felt his breathing get heavy as he tried his best to nod.

"Krono's base is near the location where you were arrested, correct?"

Percy nodded.

"Great, I think that's it. The judge has the last call on how many years you are going to spend in prison." Chiron stood up and motioned Percy to also stand up.

Chiron unlocked the door and gestured Percy to go out. Once Percy stepped out the door, Chiron followed him at the back leading him to a cell.

Percy had his head lowered, tears flowing. While they were walking, they had passed the lobby where he saw his friends in handcuffs, but he felt like he just got stabbed in the heart was when he saw his mother sitting there in tears.

When his mother realized he was there, he was already on the move to the cell.


End file.
